Fifteen
by laura4992
Summary: This is part three of my Taylor Swift series. Once again all credit for the idea goes to SpecialBookworm-394. Mercedes reflects on her high school career. A bit drabbly, teeniest use of mild language so rated K plus, doesn't hit all of the Mercedes highlights as I wanted to stick to the song and tiny mentions of Finchel. I hope you enjoy!


AN: Hey everyone! Welcome to instalment three of the Taylor Swift series. Once again may I say that the characters and what not all belong to Ryan Murphy & co. and the idea of the Taylor Swift series belongs to SpecialBookworm-394. I just pinched it because I love Taylor Swift and wanted to take a crack at it too! I hope you enjoy and if you have the time please review!

AU- Where Mercedes knows Rachel pre-Glee.

* * *

_You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors,  
It's the morning of your very first day,  
You say "Hi" to your friends you ain't seen in a while,  
Try and stay out of everybody's way,  
It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here,  
For the next four years in this town,  
Hoping one of those Senior boys will wink at you and say,  
"You know I haven't seen you around, before",_

It was really scary, that first day of high school. I didn't have any close friends, not close enough to hang out with anyway, so I was pretty much starting high school alone. It's funny really, thinking back to then. In just a few short years I've gone from having nobody to having some of the most amazing friends I could ever ask for. I remember seeing all these new faces- some cute ones too, especially Seniors- but they saw right through me. I was just another Freshman, trying not to get singled out and picked on.

_'Coz when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you,_  
_You're gonna believe them,_  
_And when you're fifteen,_  
_Feeling like there nothing to figure out,_  
_Well count to ten, take it in,_  
_This is life before you know who you're gonna be,_  
_At fifteen,_

But I had to get used to it. This was high school, I was going to be here for four more years. Four more years of being stuck in crappy Ohio then I could get out of here and take on the world in whichever way I wanted to- I hadn't decided yet. Come on, I was fifteen! Those kinds of decisions didn't need to be though about until _at least_ Junior year.

_You sit in class next to a brunette named Rachel,  
And soon enough you're best friends,  
Laughing at the other girls who think they're so cool,  
We'll be out of here as soon as we can,  
And then you're on your very first date and he's got a car,  
And you're feeling like flying,  
And you're mommas waiting up and you think he's the one,  
And you're dancing round your room when the night ends,  
When the night ends,_

I remember I was sat next to a girl called Rachel in math class in Freshman year. She was a little annoying, but otherwise we clicked straight away. We worked on homework together, had sleepovers and we taught each other stuff. She showed me musicals I would never have thought to have watched and I introduced her to modern music. She got me singing too, more than the usual hidden, in-the-house-only singing I did already. We even did a few diva ballads together in our bedrooms in our PJ's when the right song came on.

We ended up hanging out at school together, sitting in the library or the cafeteria bitching about the Cheerios and the jocks who thought they were so much better than us and making plans for the future. Rachel always knew she wanted to be a Broadway star, and it never changed through our whole high school career.

_'Coz when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you,_  
_You're gonna believe them,_  
_When you're fifteen and your first kiss,_  
_Makes your head spin round but,_  
_In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy of the football team,_  
_But I didn't know it at fifteen,_

We both had crushes. I had a huge crush on Kurt Hummel, a boy in my Geography class with chestnut hair, flawless skin and the most amazing eyes I had ever seen and Rachel had a crush on Finn Hudson, a Freshman on the football team.

_When all you wanted was to be wanted,_  
_Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now,_

_Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday,  
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine,  
And Rachel gave everything she had to a boy,  
Who changed his mind_

_We both cried,_

We would sit on our beds- depending on whose house we were at- and talk about how we would get them to notice us and how we would get them to fall in love with us and one day marry us. Man, did that fall through. I never took into account that the flawless skinned boy I crushed on so majorly would be gay- which is _totally_ obvious now I look back. As for Rachel? She got her man, the next year actually. She gave him everything she possibly could, only for him to change his mind and go back to his ex, Quinn.

I remember that phone call, even now. I could hardly understand her and before I knew it I was at hers and we were hugging and she was crying and before long I was crying too because I could just feel how much she was hurting, from the lies and the deceit and the effort it had taken to get him to notice her and want to be with her and all for this.

_'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you,  
You're gonna believe them,  
And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall,  
I've found that time can heal most anything,  
And you just might find who you're supposed to be,  
I didn't know who I was supposed to be, _

_At fifteen,_

High school was tough for us. We got countless slushy facials, more drama than what you would find on a TV show as well as juggling classes and figuring out what we were gonna do after high school.

Me? Well I don't need to tell you what happened to me; you're reading this autobiography, telling you about how I went from being a big singing fish in the small pond of Ohio to being one of the biggest singing superstars in the world (MTV's words, not mine!).

I bet you're wondering, what happened to Rachel? Well, Rachel Barbra Berry, now Rachel Barbra Hudson, got her man, went to NYADA and is now in _Wicked_, living her dream like she knew she would. Her and Finn worked things out and Finn hasn't strayed since. He's a good guy, but it's not for me to big him up. You'll just have to get Rachel's book, won't you?

_La la la la la... la la la la la... La la la la la..._

_Your very first day,_  
_Take a deep breath girl,_  
_Take a deep breath as you walk through the doors._


End file.
